Summer Plans And Product Reviews!

Thank you for tuning in. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are the Pickleballers Next Door. We are for the Joes and not the pros. Your court, our court. Thank you for tuning in to the Pickleballers Next Door. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are here today talking about what's happening with us this summer where we're going to be some tournaments that you guys should check out. Come follow us. Yeah, PickleCon. Yeah, PickleCon. We're going to be at the Rocky Mountain Championships. And there's three of those. So that's going to happen pretty quick. So we're going to be at the Rocky Mountain Championships. Yes. We'll have a booth, Steamboat, Grand Junction, and the first one is at Clement Park. Thank you for choosing us. I went blank too there. With you looking in your eyes, I went blank. But how have you been, Mike? What's new with you? Well, I've been good. I want to give a shout out to you really quick. It's your birthday, boy. Yeah, it's my birthday. Don't you? Don't you sound all sad? It's my birthday. It is. I just don't typically celebrate, you know? I know. But I'm glad we actually got together last night for his B-Day. We did. I have to say it this way because my wife will be angry. We went and watched some little people wrestle. Micro-wrestling. Micro-wrestling. I like that. No, I mean, they're on Instagram. They're on Instagram. Yeah. They're called micro-something or other. I don't know. But it's a lot of fun. It was entertaining. It was really fun. It was entertaining. Really fun. And that was the first birthday I've been to a micro-wrestling. Interesting. We had a good dinner too. What was the place that we ate at? The Burn Down. That was good. Yeah. That was really good off of Broadway. It was pretty good. Off of Broadway. Yeah, it was pretty good. I always like food. Who doesn't? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. There's something wrong with them if they don't like food. So what else you got going on, man? How have you been playing? You know, I would like to play a lot more. I play all the time, right? We play five, six, seven days if we can. My daughter and my wife and her husband took us out to go out to have some fun, went to a concert, and had a couple drinks. And then I guess I thought I was John DeVolta. I mean, I guess that's aging me. But I thought I was a real dancer, so I put my moves on and I've kind of twisted my knees. Oh, my Atlanta. I know. But I heard you were in the go-go cage too, Mike. It got a little weird. I mean, it got a little ... I don't drink, and I don't ever suggest these. I don't know if they're called ... They're Arnold Palmer's, but it's some vodka. And like I said, I don't drink. So it's an iced tea ... It's an iced tea drink. It's an iced tea vodka. Yeah. With lemonade. But it tastes ... You can't taste the alcohol. And where we came from, it was really hot. So I was ready for a drink, and my son-in-law was like, Mike, just take one of these. And it's like, oh, I was hot. I downed that thing. I said, I could use another one of those. Well, after two, the dancing started. You were in the go-go cage. Yeah, go-go cage was happening. So I had a lot of fun. I mean, when you get to spend time with your family ... My daughter was so much fun. She knows I love dancing. There's just a little me that I thought I was going to be a dancer somewhere in my life. But I haven't been able to play pickleball. I've been playing in ... I started a little league up in Apex on Sunday nights, but my open play ... I've been just kind of nursing my knee. Yeah, I hear that. I hear that. How about you? I haven't been playing ... I've been playing a little bit, not as much as I'd like. I played in the best of the best tournament. We took third in our level, which, cool, but we don't move on. That's good. Yeah. Didn't you do a dinking ... I did a dink one as well. It was fun. I've never heard of a dinking tournament. Yeah, it's just dinking. Just dinking. No speed-ups. But if they leave it up, you can finish it. You can finish it. Yeah. So was there any body bagging? No. Oh. No, because some of the people that we played with complained a lot about everything. You know, you have those people. I do. Yeah. Well, you usually keep that for your friends like me or other people. And so that being said, I have to tell you, I think it's one of the funniest things that they were serious about that I've ever heard on the court. I was forward. We were receiving the serve. I was forward. My partner's back. We're getting the serve. And we're all friends, and I'm messing around, and I fake swing at the serve. He misses it and looks at me like, don't do that. I'm dyslexic. I was like, hmm, I don't know what that has to do with missing that, but okay. That was the funniest and weirdest thing that I've ever heard. So he was really angry because you were faking, messing around. But he missed it, and he can't hit the ball because he's dyslexic. Okay. Cool. I've heard some crazy stuff. I've heard some crazy stuff, too. But I think- That's a new one. To that point, to this point, that takes the cake. It takes the cake. Oh, my gosh. My ADD was getting in the way. Yeah. I don't know. It was just the weirdest thing. It's getting crazy, though. Really? I mean, it is getting crazy. I mean, pickleball is growing so fast, so crazy everywhere. I did do a small tournament in Apex in 315,000. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, I've been to Apex and 350 people, and this is Apex in Arvada. Yeah. I mean, they got 20 courts. Yeah. But it's crazy just how many people are playing pickleball compared to four years ago. I mean, that's been three, three and a half, four years now? Yeah. It's insane. I actually saw a graphic, speaking of this stuff. Okay. Let me find it. Like pickleball players are like, there's 14 plus million pickleball players. Oh, it's crazy. All the, I mean, the, what was just the big, they just had the big one in Florida was the big tournament they just had in Florida for the, the PPA, not the PBA, but it was the, Oh, the US Open. US Open. Yeah. I mean, here's US Open for pickleball. Yeah. US Open. I would like to go to that. I didn't realize it was two weeks long, but I would love, I think next year that's going to be on our books. One of our, one of our traveling destinations. That's one of our traveling destinations. So look for us at the US Open next year. Yeah. Because I, But there's so many things going on. I mean, just put pickleball in your, in your, in your computer and you're going to be amazed at what pops up. Right. It's crazy. It is. But, but anyway, I mean, how about anything else? Anything crazy? Nothing crazy. Just, you know, working and playing and living. I just can't believe that the listeners that we're getting now too, I just want to say a shout out to everybody because wow, our numbers are just going through the roof, which we thank you all. Yeah, absolutely. We wouldn't be here without you guys. We really wouldn't. So we're really going to the next level. Every time you talk to us, there's new things happening. So, Absolutely. Yeah. So if you guys want to drop us a message, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear. Love to put you on the show. Tell us where you want us to be. I am Greg at pickleballersnextdoor.com and I'm Mike at pickleballersnextdoor.com. You can never do this. I can never. It's so funny because I have, I literally have probably 30 emails for different things that I do. I believe you. So they all kind of mixed together. So he's Mike at pickleballersnextdoor.com. Or you can go onto our Instagram or Tik Tok and DMS. Thank you. And we are very, and we, when I say we are very responsive, I am very responsive. He's very responsive. He's younger. Yeah. Even though, yeah, today I don't want to go. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going there. No, no, no. Because he gets angry with me. But when we come back, we'll talk about some of the stuff we're doing this summer and that some of the tournaments we'll be at. Yeah. And so you people can find us and we can meet you. Put you on air. Yeah. But before we go, I'd like to give a shout out to Casual Dinker. He's been, he's a great guy. Puts out some great clothing, great gear. If you want some on or off court swag, something funny, something fun, different, something different. Yeah. Go check his out. Go check out his website. CasualDinkerPickleball.com. 25% off for all of 2025. Yeah. And I think he said he came out with a few paddles now too. Yeah. He has the Bali Lama. The Bali Lama. That's awesome. Yeah. We gave one of those away at the Aurora Pickler Grand Opening. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Great guy. If you go back through some of our series, some of our shows, he's on one of them. And just if you remember this and you see me, just remember about the clowns getting out of the car. I can't forget it. Yeah. It was funny. So we'll be back talking about the summer plans. I just want to say thank you to A Sweet Sip for supporting the podcast. A Sweet Sip is a very delicious CBD drink, non-alcoholic, four great flavors. It helps me take the edge off when I'm going to play in a pickleball tournament. If you want to get some, check them out at DrinkASweetSip.com. All right. Thanks for- Hanging out? Well, let's start that over. Yeah. Start it over. All right. Well, we're back. First tournament I want to talk about is the Stars and Stripes Tournament. This is pretty neat. I really like what they're doing here. Yes. It's going to be on June 14th at the Pickler in Aurora. Great place. The guy running it is Steven Price. He revamped it and changed the date because, and this is for all those beginners out there that are looking to play in a tournament. He has a bracket now that's a beginner bracket, 2-0 to 3-2-5. That is awesome. I mean- There's not a lot of tournaments that have this. No. And I recommend it. You want to try and really have some fun, this is a good place for you to go. Yeah. Steven's a great guy, and I'm sure the tournament's going to go off without a hitch. You definitely need to check that out. If you're new to the sport and want to try a tournament out and see how that goes, he has a beginner, intermediate, advanced- Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Went all the way up to 5-0. Yeah. So it goes to, yeah, advanced men's 4-2-6 to 5-0. So beginner, intermediate, advanced. Yeah. Now is this, you don't have to be, this is outside of Pickler or do they have to be a member at Pickler? No. This is outside of Pickler. This is a Pickler event. It's a Stars and Stripes event that this guy throws, I think it's his second or third year. Nice. Yeah. Well, you won't be disappointed if you've never played at the Pickler in Aurora. It's beautiful there. It is. Good people. I know some of them. Yeah. Me too. So yeah, that's Stars and Stripes, June 14th. It's on pickleballbrackets, pickleballtournaments.com. You can sign up there, especially if you're a beginner- Newbies, yeah. And you're looking to get into a tournament and feel what it's like. I feel like this is the only tournament that I've seen that has a beginner bracket 2-0 to 3-2-5. I don't think I've ever seen one. I don't think I have either. Yeah. But I think this is a great place for you, people that are just getting into the sport, just to have fun and feel what it feels like to be in that kind of, in a tournament. In a tournament scenario, yeah. It's a different feeling for sure. Yeah. So if you're competitive, this is the place to start. Definitely. So. So next on our list is the Rocky Mountain Championship, aka the RMC. This is at Clement Park, June 18th through the 22nd. Yep. Plans are looking really good out there. Oh my gosh. We've been out there several times to help walk it. We're kind of a big part of it there in our little studio. We're going to be doing a live podcast there. We'll have a booth. We'll have, we'll be doing a podcast. So come see us. Yeah, come see us. Say what's up. You know, we might have a little lounge in there as well. Come and chill. You know, maybe we'll interview you. Maybe we won't. Who knows? We'll say hi. Maybe. Yeah. Lots of vendors. Should be a blast. Yeah. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. Ricky's been doing a great job. That's who we kind of work with. There's several owners to it, but Ricky has been, we meet with him quite often. Great guy. Right. And this is, I don't know if it's going to be this year or event or next year, but this series is going to have a point system. So the more you play in, the more points you get. And obviously the higher you place, the more points you get as well. So at the end of the season, you can win the overall championship, even if you're not like a 5-0. Yeah, absolutely. You could win it. Yeah. When we were talking to him, he said that there's many times cases where it's the intermediary or somebody will win the whole thing. Yeah. And it's like the FedEx Cup. You just earn points. And the higher you place, the more points you get. Yeah. But he said they're taking a lot of time to set this up. So I mean, there's a lot of planning, a lot of organizing. This has been around, but I think they're going back and trying to make this even better than it's ever been. Absolutely. So they bought it off of the guy who ran it last year and everything before that. So they're making changes. They're listening to people. We've all played it. We both played in it. Yeah. So we're excited to be part of it. And they're going to make it a championship series, which is exciting. It's really exciting. So next on that list of tournaments for the CPA, the Colorado Pickleball Association, is the Mountain Town Classic, and that's in Steamboat, July 25th and 27th. Again, earn your points. Should be a nice place. Oh, a beautiful place to go up to, even if you're going to play, but you can just hang out there. Yeah. And I haven't been there yet, but from what I understand, the Steamboat Tennis and Pickleball Club is an outstanding place to play. Gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be a lot of fun. I'm planning on hitting the Strawberry Hot Springs. Yeah. I'll be there. Yeah. And maybe we'll float the river, too, Mike. I like it. Pickleball in the river. Oh, yeah. And there's a bunch of good food up there. Oh, my God. Yeah. Aurum. If you ever go to Aurum, man, I love Aurum. Yeah. Well, we'll be there. Because there's one in Breckenridge, too. Oh, God, it's so good. We'll be there. We'll be there. I just love Steamboat, man. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. We go up there. We try to go up there every year, you know, just to hang out. It's just gorgeous. Just quiet, peaceful. I mean, so, yeah, it's nice. It is. And the third one is the Grand Mesa Open. That's in Grand Junction, September 12th through the 14th. I don't know much about Grand Junction. I know it's a long way away, four hours or so. Yeah. No, maybe not three hours. I don't know. Whatever. Nonetheless, it's an overnight stay. We've been told that the facility is beautiful. Gorgeous. Yeah. And there's just great players out there. Pickleball is big out there. And it's going to be in September. So the heat should be going away at that point. Yeah. And I know Grand Junction has the Colorado River coming pretty close. There's a lot of mountain biking. You drive a little bit back in towards the mountains. You have the Palisades. And you can go on a wine tour. So you go on a wine tour, come play in your pickleball tournament. See how that works. See how that works. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, that should be a fun one as well. We'll be at all three of these tournaments. Yeah. We'll be there. We'll have a booth. And we'll be doing podcasts from there. So come see us. Please. We got some, could have some gifts for you. We probably will have some gifts for you. So come see us. Could just get a hug. Well, you'll get that as well, yeah. But yeah, these are going to be great. And it kind of gets going to bang, bang, bang right after each other. It is. And in between Steamboat and Grand Junction Tournament, we're going to be at Pickle Con. Oh, Pickle Con. Yeah, that was, we had a lot of fun. I think that was our, that was when we kind of, that's kind of our first start. It is our first start. We, I mean, we didn't even do a podcast. We were just. It was a road trip. It was a road trip to get to know each other and it was outstanding. And guess what? We're doing it again this year. Oh, we're doing it again. I think we know a little bit more and you're going to hear about some of the Char Bar, which is. Oh, Char Bar. Oh, yeah. We're there. We're actually going to be making podcasts while we're there. So. And eating. Yeah. And you've heard us probably mention Char Bar before, but like, I think we're kind of addicted to Char Bar, Mike. Our Char Bar. We are addicted to it. And I've already reached out to them and I'm excited to see them. So. That's going to be really good. And we're excited to get there. I think I want to do the tour that they set last year that we didn't do. I didn't know they had that. I didn't either, but we probably should. So August 7th through the 10th, Kansas City, Missouri, Pickle Con. The PPA will not be there this year. So there should be a better turnout. Yeah. But you want to play some pickleball even without the turnout. We played seven hours plus a day there. Yeah. So don't. If you. And it's so it goes and goes and goes. I mean, there was like almost 100 courts there. I don't know exactly what there was. Pretty damn close. It was a lot. And so you got to play in all different types of courts. They have tournaments there. They had the NPL. They had the NPL there planned. So the seniors. But and then it was just we played and played. They had a tournament there. They have a global tournament, open play there. Lots of fun stuff. We did how fast your serve was. That was fun. Yes. Yours was faster than mine. Of course it was. They missed my first one. So I was really angry with that. I think it was faster. That's what we'll keep saying. Yes. But we've met a lot of really good people out there and we plan on meeting more people out there. So if you're going to be in the area or are looking for something to do August 7th through the 10th, come check out the Pickle Con. I'm feeling like it's going to be a lot more fun this year because the PPA is not going to be there. And it was his first year. So it was the first time. So I think they were getting organized. For the first time, I thought they did a great job. I agree. And for the PPA being there, that was pretty tough. I mean, this was happening at the same time. We enjoyed it. We liked it. We did both because we got to go with all Pickleball. So we were greedy. Pickleball. Pickleball. Yeah. Eat Pickleball. It was a lot of fun. We were greedy Pickleballers. You say eaty Pickleballers? Greedy. Oh. We wanted anything Pickleball. We were there. Pickleball and food, man. Pickleball and food. That's us. Yeah. I'm telling you. I mean, that's what we're- You know what's crazy is that we've said so many times now that if you have food and Pickleball were there, that people are now repeating that to us. Oh, I heard that you guys like food. Yeah. Here's a sandwich. Yeah. Here's a sandwich. Shut up and play Pickleball. Yeah. Exactly. I'm happy now. Beat us. Perfect. Yeah. So yeah. We're excited about this summer. We are. Really excited. Yeah. And I mean, who knows what else is going to happen in between all of this stuff. Oh, yeah. There's a ton of other stuff. And we will probably be doing other stuff. We just don't know exactly what that stuff is because this is the stuff we actually have scheduled. We have scheduled right now. Yeah. But no. I mean, it's awesome. I mean, if you guys can come see us and we're going to talk a lot more as we're talking down here in the future. We might have tickets. We might have giveaways for this stuff. So we're just today just kind of put it in your mind to, hey, be part of this. Yeah. If we're part of it. I mean, it's something that we wouldn't do something that we wouldn't want you to do. And we would also like to know your feedback, a possible future show. What do you guys think about having a shoe review? I don't think I've heard anyone do a shoe review before. So if you would like a shoe review, let us know. Any shoe companies out there that are hearing this, want to send us a couple pairs of shoes for Mike and I, reach out. Let's talk. Yeah. And we'll see what we can do. I'd love to do a shoe review for the normal everyday person. Well, it's just crazy. Cause I mean, and probably why we're talking about shoes is how fast, if you play a lot of pickleball, we wear these things out. I mean, literally 30 to 45 days, I'm already wearing holes in my shoe. And they're, they're not like the cheapest thing. No, they're not the most expensive thing, but no, it's still a cost that you have to every three, four months that you have to change out your shoes. So, so yeah. So like, we'd love to ask you guys, you know, what, what shoes that you guys like, what do you wear? I mean, we'd like to know more what, there's a lot out there now. There are a lot out there. Yeah. So it's, it's smooth. So yeah, those are some of the fun things. And we'd like to also thank kitchen blockers, the eye protection company for sending us a couple pairs of eye protection so we can test them out and see how those go. Yeah. You can actually watch on our Instagram about it. Yeah. And you said they're made from military grade materials. I didn't want to go, I didn't want to get too deep into it, but they're. I know that they're very, very firm glasses, lensless. And we're going to go upstairs to our court and hit a couple of balls at each other's faces. See what happens. There might be some other marks on us, but our eyes will be safe. Can I tear Mike's cornea? Let's see what we can do. This doesn't sound fun. It does. For me. Mike's going to put on the glasses. Yeah. I'm going to smack a ball from the kitchen on, he's standing at the other side of the kitchen. I'm going to smack him out of his face and he's going to stand there with his hands behind his back and see what these kitchen blockers can do. I'm just worried about my nose and my lips. I want to put face shields. He hits the ball hard. Oh, that's funny. No, but we are going to go test them and see how comfortable they are and stuff. So we appreciate them sending us and you know, we, we are more than happy for people that want new products or products they want to test and we were more than happy to try it. You know, we're not a big, we're not a big product person, but we will, we definitely are open to talking to people about products. But we, you know, we want to do products that are going to hit the everyday pickleballer or affect the everyday pickleballer. So the game's getting faster and people are getting injured with their eyes and that kind of stuff because they're not wearing eye protection. They really are. And you know, if you have a pair of glasses that you want tested and you want it to reach the everyday pickleballer, hit us up, we'll, we'll, we'll test it out for you. We'll push out your product a hundred percent. Well, and these are, these are, I mean, I just believe in that where I wear, I've been hit a couple of good times in the face and close to the eye, black eye. I mean, I got a black eye once already from it, so it's not worth it. I mean, if pick while it's a lot of fun, it's not worth your eyes. It's not. Yeah, definitely. So we're going to go test these kitchen blockers and then watch our Instagram. We're going to see what, hopefully I don't have a bloody nose or something and then we'll come back and let you know what we think. I like it. All right. All right. We'll talk. We'll see you soon. Bye. Wanted to give a special thanks to pickle for the people for supporting our podcast. Pickle for the people is a Denver based paddle company and they specialize in a low carbon footprint. They also have a buyback program. Check them out at pickleforthepeople.com. All right, well, we're back and we went and tested those goggles. Yeah, but I went away from him hitting me with the ball, but we did worse. We turned on our ball machine and we did a happy Gilmore instead of hitting us in the chest. We let the ball hit us in the goggles. I don't suggest this. Well, yes. So I'll tell you that those are some strong. They do glasses because that ball was whipping out of that ball machine. Whatever it was doing for me. Yeah. Well, when you get hit in the face with a ball, it hurts, but the glasses do protect your eyes. I still got a pretty good red mark. I'm going to have a bruise on my forehead. I guarantee it because I was letting the balls just, I was making sure the balls hit me right in the face. Yeah, but they did hit, they did protect. They protected. And if I'm being honest, I barely felt the ball when it hit the glasses, but the part that hit the glasses and my forehead, that's the only part I felt was on my forehead. Yeah, it was. Yeah. I got a couple in the cheek, a couple right in the head, right on the ball. Oh my God. Yeah. That's the problem. I don't know. Cushion there. Oh my God. Yeah. I'm a hundred percent. Yeah. These are the real deal. They're a real deal. If you want a pair of eye protection, glasses, goggles to play pickleball in without a lens a hundred percent, get these. I really do. Yeah. These are, you're not going to worry about sun glare. You're not going to worry about glare from the ball shading. They were nice. I actually, they work. So we really, we put them through the test. Yeah. They're a little uncomfortable for me, but I have a big head. So do I. Yeah. And it comes with a bunch of little strips that you can put in there and make it a little bit more comfortable. They were a little tight with the strap on them. But if you take the strap off, I feel like they're a little too loose for me. And I think it's one of those things they'd stretch out as heat and wearing a little bit. I think they would stretch out. I'd have, I'd fully agree with you on that. So, um, but yeah, these are, these are the things, I mean, they will be in my bag. Yeah. I will have them. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I feel like Batman sometimes though. You look like, I did look like Batman. So yeah. Um, I like it. Yeah. I feel like kitchen blockers are a good alternative for goggles or eye protection if you don't want lenses. Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't suggest to use a ball machine and take one to the face now, but you know, sometimes it's fun. It is. He was laughing. I was laughing until it hurt. Yeah. I mean, it hurt, but then it started to really hurt. So I just stopped. Yeah. But we'll have to go up and get some more footage. We're going to put it on our Instagram. Check it out. Yes, please. Pickleballers next door on Instagram and Tik Tok. We'll put this up, I don't know, in the next week and let us know what you think. Yeah. All right, guys, this has been a great show and again, we, uh, we just love your support. Yep. Um, just want to tell thanks to our producer, editor, Mike. Um, he's awesome. M-H-Y-K. Monroe. I love the way he spells his name. Yeah. Isn't it awesome? If you look up, check him out on Instagram. His name's Mike Monroe. I think it's actually Mike Dot Monroe. Um, he has a band called Suicide Cages. Check them out. He's good. He's good. Check them out, man. They're a lot of fun. Good. Anyway, well, hi guys. Have a great week, weekend, whatever it is. Yeah. Um, we're going to head up back to the ball machine. Yep. Let's get more footage of balls hitting us in the face. Have a good day. All right. Thanks guys. Bye-bye.